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Posts tagged ‘tutorial’

Have you ever had a photo capture your eye

and then wonder how the photographer accomplished the effect within that piece of art? For a lot of us, this happens fairly frequently. And if you’re really interested in finding out how that particular image came together, what do you do?

In this digital age, it’s quite possible that your first instinct is to turn to Google or whatever else may be your preferred search engine. However, in many cases, you may not be able to find what you need with a simple “how to” style search. Even if you do get results, there’s a good chance you’ll end up finding some conflicting information. No need to worry though, there is a much easier way to figure out what a you’ll have to do in order to get the qualities you love into images you shoot on your own.

Perhaps you’ve heard of Flickr. For those of you who haven’t, it’s a photo storage and sharing tool with a bit of a social networking quality as well. The site has undergone some awesome visual upgrades lately but one of its coolest features still remains. That would be the ability to see the technical details of each image. With this information, it should be pretty easy to recreate an image similar to those you admire so much.

You’ll be able to tell exactly what shutter speed, aperture, ISO and more is the combination that produces the desired result. All you have to do is go out and find an image (on the site) that you want to emulate and go from there. Sure, some photographers may not like the fact that you can access this info. But the way I see it, it’s like sharing with and learning from other professionals and not really any different than when someone posts a Photoshop tutorial on Youtube. And besides, photographers essentially OK this when they decide to sign up of the site in the first place.

Check out the video I have created below to find out how to access this information for yourself. In this case, I used a model photography shot that I took myself but it works the same for every image throughout the entire site.

When working with portraits or any type of photos with close-ups on people’s faces, you will very likely run into the dreaded bags under the eyes issue.

The truth is, no matter what our age may be or how beautiful a person we might be, bags under the eyes are pretty much a natural coinsurance for just about everyone, at least from time to time.

So, I offer you two simple ways to get rid of these unsightly sacks once and for all, at least in your photos anyway.

Before and After

What you’ll need:

Photoshop or any photo editing application that has the tools specified below.

Method 1 – Cloning

Take a small selection form around the eye are and clone it using the clone stamp tool or equivalent. Then proceed to fill in the dark, baggy area with the cloned colors. This works well with people of any skin tone or ethnicity.

Method 2 – Dodge

While this method isn’t generally effective with those who have darker skin tones, it works great for those with lighter ones. Use the dodge tool (or again an equivalent) to cover over the dark, baggy areas. Be sure to set the tool’s exposure to a fairly low percentage so as to avoid the area turning out to white.

Method 1

The fastest method, can also use the shortcut Command+Shift+U on macs, and Control+Shift+U on PC’s

Step 1

Select your layer, then navigate to Image>Mode>Grayscale

Step 2

When prompted, select the discard button. We can always use command+z to undo any steps, so don’t worry.

Method 2

Step 1

By navigating to Layer>New Adjustment Layer> Hue/Saturation you can change the image to black and white while maintaining control over values. This method is also referred to as “nondestructive” because it can be reversed at any time (as long as it’s saved as a PSD).

Step 2

With the Hue/Saturation sliders on hand, lowering saturation, hue, and lightness values can give you a customizable black and white image.